TRANSCRIPT: Bobby Petrino ACC Teleconference 10-11-2017

BOBBY PETRINO: We’re coming off a tough loss on last Thursday to North Carolina State. They’re a very good football team and they got after us a little bit.

Defensively, we didn’t play as well as we need to, obviously. I do like the way Trevon Young is playing. He’s doing a really nice job of leading and playing extremely hard and making plays all over the field.

Offensively, we’re doing some good things. We’re moving the ball, throwing it well and catching it well. It’s good to see some of our young receivers get going. Lamar still continues to have a good year.

But we’re not scoring enough points, and that’s a team thing. You score points by getting short fields, getting turnovers, doing a better job in the kicking game. So we’re working real hard at that.

But looking forward to the challenge with Boston College. They’re a very good football team have a great defense, and they’re going to come in and run the ball at us. We’re going to have a great week of practice and do a good job physically stopping the run.

Q. Coach, I’m wondering if you know any more about if you’ll have Jaylen and Stacy, or I think you said no on Stacy. But if you know you’ll have Jaylen available on Saturday?
BOBBY PETRINO: He was out there last night and ran around, caught the ball. It’s a day-by-day thing. We’ll see how he progresses as the week goes on.

Q. Any more progression on any of the other injured guys, the short-term injured guys?
BOBBY PETRINO: Not right now.

Q. Bobby, obviously, you’ve got some depth that I’m sure you want to work on at the line back position with the injuries you guys have had to deal with. Beyond Reggie, how do you see that going this week and as you guys progress to try to get the running backs a little bit more involved in the run game?
BOBBY PETRINO: You’re right. We’ve lost three running backs, which seems like it always happens at one position. Unfortunately, that’s a tough one. Reggie’s got to come in and do a good job for us and run the ball physically and catch it out of the backfield.

Trey Smith is a young guy that’s been around for a couple years how and did a real nice job running the ball earlier in the year so we’ve got to get him cranked up.

Dave Williams is back. So be excited to see how he comes out and how many carries we can get him and get him going.

Tobias Little is a guy who has been playing fullback and running back for us. He’s big and fast so we’ve got to give him his opportunities too.

Q. Do you feel like you want to make bigger or more concerted effort to try to get the running backs involved and not continue to rely on Lamar so much in the run game?
BOBBY PETRINO: Yeah, definitely. That’s what we’ve been trying to do. Unfortunately, sometimes the game has played out where, like last week, we got a two-minute drive before the half and then two of them late in the game. So it’s like you’re throwing the ball way more than you want to.

So you just have to be in the game where you can mix in the run, the play action. Every week, with the assistant coaches, I’m on them about how we need to be able to hand the ball to running backs and let them run with it.

Q. Good morning. You mentioned the defense. As you turn the page from the first half of the season to the second half of the season, what areas of that defense would you like to see improve in the second half?
BOBBY PETRINO: We’ve got a lot of work to do. Number one is being successful on first down, stopping the run. Some of the issue there has been tackling and be physical enough with our young guys. Obviously, we’ve got to defend the deep ball. We had guys in position and we’ve got to have the confidence to be able to turn and make the play on the ball. So we’re working extremely hard on that.

Q. Hi, Bobby. Just talk about playing Boston College. They have a have good defense. They played against Notre Dame. Notre Dame had a good running attack with their quarterback in Adams. A couple weeks ago, they played Clemson and they played really tough until the fourth quarter. What do you have to do to not fall into the trap, have them sticking around?
BOBBY PETRINO: They’re always good on defense. They always play very physical. They’ve got big guys on the defensive front, line backers, safeties. They tackle well. And then they have two really, really good pass rushers. So you’ve got to be patient. You’ve got to be able to take your four- or five-yard run games and hopefully get a few shots down the field. But they’ve been playing good defense there for a long time.

Q. And you guys, Alexander, is he fully back to 100 percent? I know he’s been out for a couple weeks with an injury. Is he back to full strength and ready to take over the cornerback position?
BOBBY PETRINO: Yeah, he’s doing a great job at practice.

Q. Bobby, you mentioned Lamar coming off of the N.C. State game. I know you said you’re pleased with the way he’s playing. What do you want to see from him going forward here, beginning this week?
BOBBY PETRINO: He’s such a great competitor. He tried as hard as he possibly could there. He’s just got to be a little more patient and utilize the weapons around him. We’ve got to give him better protection and we’ve got to be able to get some easy completions for him.

But he’s just got to keep working on his technique and his fundamentals and improve every day in practice.

Q. Are you seeing any themes in how teams are defending him this year versus at this point of the season last year?
BOBBY PETRINO: I mean, everybody’s got their way to defend him. We’ve got to come in and find that out early and then see how we can get everybody on offense involved.